Naxal hijack theory a hoax, says Ghandy

Was the alleged Maoist hijack bid to rescue jailed party ideologue Kobad Ghandy from a Howrah-bound train in April a hoax to defame him?

Was the alleged Maoist hijack bid to rescue jailed party ideologue Kobad Ghandy from a Howrah-bound train in April a hoax to defame him?

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Ghandy (63), lodged at a high-security solitary cell in Delhi’s Tihar jail, recently complained to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that the alleged Naxal-bid to rescue him from the train on April 13 was a “hoax”, orchestrated by “intelligence agencies to defame and tarnish” his image and also deny him legal aid.

According to a NHRC source, Ghandy has questioned alleged “hijack theory” and accused the intelligence agencies of “consistently planting stories in media” against him.

The purpose behind such a “hoax”, alleged Ghandy, was to stop him from intimating his lawyers before he faces trials against him outside Delhi.

Seeking to punch holes in the alleged theory on the Maoists’ hijack bid, Ghandy pointed to the NHRC that the details of his train journey had been a secret till the last hour due to this neither he nor “somebody else” could have planned a rescue.

Ghandy said the case in Bengal, for which he was being taken to the state to attend a court hearing, was “put on him though I have never been there.”

In his letter, Ghandy said he was made to “disembark from the Howrah-bound Super Fast express train at Allahabad”, a fact the alleged attackers did not know. “And still, the attack by them never took place, which showed that the intelligence report was wrong,” he said.

The NHRC has taken cognisance of Ghandy’s application.

Ghandy requested the NHRC to prevent intelligence agencies from “defaming” him, to protect his legal rights and stop the trial in media against him.